‘Things to do,’ he said lazily. ‘Places to go. Why are you looking for Bert? I assume that is why the police are here.’

‘He said he had information about Sean’s murder.’

‘But it has been established that Sean or whatever he was really called was killed by the IRA.’

‘And where’s the proof of that?’ demanded Agatha angrily. She was angry because those kisses had given her a flutter.

‘I don’t know,’ said Sylvan, ‘but the police seem sure of it.’ He raised his expressive eyebrows in the direction of Roy.

‘This is a friend of mine, Roy Silver. Roy, Sylvan Dubois.’

‘Charmed,’ tittered Roy.

‘Why don’t you both join me for dinner tonight?’ asked Sylvan.

‘We didn’t really mean to stay …’ began Agatha, but Roy chipped in with ‘That would be lovely. I mean, Aggie, we can hardly leave without finding out what happened to Bert.’

‘All right,’ said Agatha. ‘Where?’

‘There’s a very good Cantonese restaurant called China Dreams on the main street,’ said Sylvan. ‘Shall we say eight o’clock?’

He turned to leave. ‘Aren’t you going to wait and see if the police find anything?’ asked Agatha.

‘If they had, they’d be leaping about by now. À bientôt!’

Falcon eventually reappeared. ‘No sign of him,’ he called to Agatha. ‘He probably was playing a trick on you. But we’ll keep looking.’

‘Now what?’ asked Roy.

‘I want to find a Marks and Spencer,’ said Agatha, ‘and buy some clean underwear and a nightie. We may as well stay the night.’

After they had booked rooms in The Jolly Farmer and done their shopping, Agatha said, ‘We’ve still got time until this evening. I’d like to have a look at the bottom of the Brosses’ property. Bert might be working on a boat there.’

‘We could go back to the harbour and see if anyone will take us down the river,’ suggested Roy.

‘Good idea.’

But Judson said he didn’t know of anyone available. They did not say where they wanted to go, only that they wanted to sail down the river for a bit. ‘I’ve a dinghy you can rent,’ said Judson, ‘but I don’t think you’d know how to handle one of those.’

Roy looked out over the water. The sun was shining and the wind had dropped. He had only ever had one lesson, but he knew Agatha often thought he was a wimp and wanted to impress her. ‘I can handle a dinghy,’ he said eagerly.

‘Are you sure?’ asked Agatha nervously.

‘Oh, sure as sure.’

Agatha was impressed when Roy got the sail up and the dinghy began to move swiftly down the river. Roy was proud of himself as he tacked backwards and forwards down the river.

Then the wind returned with a roar and Agatha screamed as the dinghy heeled dangerously.

‘Do something!’ shouted Agatha. ‘My bum’s wet.’